Why Everton should offload Maarten Stekelenburg
Everton would have been buoyant after their first two games of the season but there was a harsh reality check against Aston Villa as they lost by 2 goals.
Everton definitely need to improve in certain areas. They have been one of the biggest spenders in the transfer window in recent years but before they start adding players, they need to get rid of some of the deadwood to trim the squad and recover funds.
One player who has been linked with an exit is Dutch international goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg.
The 36-year-old has hardly featured in the last two season since Jordan Pickford joined the club and was even rarely used when Joel Robles was first-choice. He’s only made 19 appearances since his move in 2016, having moved from Fulham.
Stekelenburg is an Ajax graduate, having spent over 8 years at the club but hasn’t really improved upon his game since.
One of the bigger goalkeepers in the game, Stekelenburg stands tall at 6 ft 6 inches. However, since his move to England and loan spell with Monaco, he’s often made some questionable decisions.
Stekelenburg isn’t the most flexible of goalkeepers due to his size and despite being from the Ajax school, isn’t as good as the more modern goalkeepers with his feet and it’s best that Everton offload him European window comes to a close.
Jordan Pickford is the undisputed number 1 for Everton and his national side. He’s massively improved in the last couple of seasons and is still fairly young and has a lot of years to develop himself into a top goalie.
His distribution, reflexes and command in the box make him not just a good player but a real leader in that penalty box.
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Marco Silva will be under pressure to do a lot better this season with the investment that the Toffees have made in that side.
There’s still far too much reliant on Lucas Digne for creativity and Gylfi Sigurdsson and Richarlison for goals based on the performances in the first couple of weeks.
He’ll need to make progress on last season and getting rid of players who are surplus to requirements is a good start.